Convert a String to an Array in Java

There are multiple ways to convert a String to an array in Java. We can convert it to a char array or String array.

Convert a String to a char Array

The String class, a fundamental data type in Java, has the useful toCharArray() method that enables the conversion of a String to a char array. You can learn more about Java classes and objects in our tutorial Objects and Classes in Java.

Example

class Test {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String str = "alegrucoding.com";
    char[] charArray = str.toCharArray();

    for (char ch : charArray) {
      System.out.print(ch + ",");
    }
  }
}
Output: a,l,e,g,r,u,c,o,d,i,n,g,.,c,o,m
 
It also can be done with a for-loop.  We need first to create an empty array, iterate over the String’s chars, and add each char to the array.

Example

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String str = "alegrucoding.com";
    char[] charArray = new char[str.length()];

    for (int i = 0; i < str.length(); i++) {
      charArray[i] = str.charAt(i);
    }

    for (char ch : charArray) {
      System.out.print(ch + ",");
    }
  }
Output: a,l,e,g,r,u,c,o,d,i,n,g,.,c,o,m

Convert a String to a String Array

The easiest way to convert a String to a String Array is with the split() method. This method splits the string around matches of the given regular expression.

Example 1

Split the String by characters

class Test {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String str = "alegrucoding.com";

    String[] strArray = str.split("");

    Arrays.stream(strArray).forEach(item -> System.out.print(item + ","));
  }
}
Output: a,l,e,g,r,u,c,o,d,i,n,g,.,c,o,m

Example 2

Split the String by white space

class Test {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String str = "Hello Java World";

    String[] strArray = str.split(" ");

    Arrays.stream(strArray).forEach(item -> System.out.print(item + ","));
  }
}
Output: Hello,Java,World,
 
You can use whatever regex you want to split your String with the split() method.
 
Happy coding!

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